Arrived in Amsterdam

We arrived in Amsterdam a couple days ago and have settled nicely into our hotel and got right into preparations. Our mode of transportation to and from the course is by bicycle. I really enjoy biking to the course as I feel like a local, but we certainly don't look like locals as we have to wear helmets. We get a lot of strange looks!

Rowing Canada has a tradition that World Championships is one of the few events in which the blades will have a maple leaf on them. (Other times the blades are just red and white without the maple leaf.) Last night we received the stickers that we put on our blades. Now I just have to wait for a time when it's not raining to put them on.

World Championship are around the corner!

We arrived safely in Italy a few days ago and went straight to work and back into training. We are staying and training in the safe place as we did when we were here a month ago. It makes it easy to adjust to a routine quickly as it is a familiar place, our home away from home in Europe. Next Wednesday we will be flying to Amsterdam and preparing for our first race. Racing begins on Sunday the 24th but our heat is on Tuesday the 26th with reps on the 28th and the final on the 31st. There are 11 crews in our event which is more than other years. It's great for women's rowing as it means there are more women in our sport!

World Rowing has put together a great article about the event with some random fact tidbits.
http://www.worldrowing.com/news/large-entry-for-2014-world-rowing-championships-amsterdam

Happy Rowing!

World Championships

It's official! I'm going to the World Championships in Amsterdam to compete against the world in the Womens 8+! We are leaving August 11th to train in Italy for a week and then we travel to Amsterdam to race and put our year of training to the test. I'm very excited to represent my country along with my teammates! I'm also very excited to be able to see my parents in the stands! Thanks for making the trip Mom and Dad! I love you!

http://www.rowingcanada.org/news-events/news/2014-rowing-canada-aviron-senior-national-team-announced

Back in Canada

Thank you everyone for all your support and kind words while I was racing! It means a lot to me and keeps me energized! I am now back in Canada and very happy to be with my London family and my friends. It was a great trip with lots of training and great racing! So proud to be a part of this great team and be able to make history together in Lucerne. Being the first Canadian women's 8+ to win a gold in Lucerne is very special as well as bringing Leslie Thompson-Willie her first gold here in 34 years. Here is a link to the race http://www.worldrowing.com/photos-videos/videos/2014-world-rowing-cup-iii-116134 if you missed it.

Our Canadian team had a great weekend of racing coming home with 4 medals. Gold for the eight, silver for the women's quad, bronze for both the lightweight women's double and the men's four. Fantastic job Canada! This link has the highlights from the racing. http://www.cbc.ca/player/Sports/Top+Stories/ID/2473459369/

                                            These photos are from the worldrowing website.

Final Race

Today was an incredible race! We had a plan and executed it and came out on top! This is the first time that Canada has won gold in the women's eight here in Lucerne. I am so proud to be able to be a part of this crew! After a night of celebration we are traveling back to Canada to get back to business and prepare for World Championships in Amsterdam at the end of August.

I am looking forward to going back home and seeing my friends and sleeping in my own bed!

Thank you so much for all your support during this trip. I really appreciate it!

5% Chance of No Rain in Lucerne

This years weather in Lucerne has been very wet. The joke here is that there is a 5% chance of no rain. The compound where all the boats are has become a huge mud pit. It has come to the point where wearing shoes is useless and my flip flops just get stuck in the mud so I'm now walking around bare foot.

Today was the first day of racing for the regatta. Our first race is tomorrow, so we had a couple training sessions working around the racing schedule. We were able to cheer on some our teammates this afternoon. It was a successful day of racing for our country with every crew advancing directly to the A final or to the A/B semifinals. Great start for Canada!

 

This afternoon I had a little bit of free time to explore Lucerne. There was a unique outdoor shopping  area with several buildings that were painted with some cool artwork and a very cool statue. Despite the rain, this city is really pretty and always bustling with tourists. 

Site seeing is over now, time to race! Our race for lanes is tomorrow at 11:42am local time (5:42am EST; 2:42am PST). There is no live video for this race but you can follow the live tracker on the worldrowing website. http://www.worldrowing.com/events/2014-world-rowing-cup-iii/ Just click on the event you want to follow. It's shows the progression of the race with each countries flag moving down the course. My event is the W8+.

Thanks for all your support! We feel the love over here! Go Canada!

The Europe Tour Continues

Our training camp in Italy has come to an end and we have traveled on to Lucerne, Switzerland were we will be racing World Cup III. Racing begins on Friday but our first race in the 8+ is on Saturday which will be a race for lanes, and then the final is on Sunday.

Training went well in Italy despite a little injury that took me off the water for a few practices. I am happy to say that I am healthy again and ready to race! While we were in Italy we had a day off and some of us took the train into Milan and explored the city for a few hours. We went to the Duomo which is a gorgeous European Catholic church. Milan is also big for fashion and the shopping there was crazy. I was too overwhelmed with the crowds and lineups I didn't actually buy anything. When we got back to our hotel we went to the lake and cooled off for a bit. Here are some pictures from the day.
(Photos courtesy of Jennifer Martins)

                                                        

 

On our final day in Italy, there was a really big storm that rolled into town. Great cracks of thunder with lots of lightning! It was really incredible to watch the storm develop and roll in. A teammate of mine, Kristin Bauder, was able to capture a photo of a lightning bolt hitting the lake.